Trackless trolley.



PATENTED MAR. 10, 1903.

A. B. UPHAM. TRAGKLESS TROLLEY.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 25, 1901. I

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

N0 MODEL.

'PATENTED MAR. 10,1 903.

A. UPHAM. TRAGKLESS TROLLEY'. APPLICATION rILnn APB. 2.51901.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTEMAS B. UPHAM, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TOFRED G. TILTON, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

TRACKLESS TROLLEY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 722,654, dated March10, 1903.

Application filed April 25, 1901.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ARTEMAS B. UPHAM, a citizen of the United States,residing at the city of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State ofMassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inTrackless Trolleys, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exactdescription.

The object of this invention is the construction of means by which aconveyance unprovided with confining track-rails can receive amotor-energizing current of electricity from juring people and propertyin the streets below, but it cannot be readily applied to or removedfrom the Wires nor conveniently switched from one line to another.

My invention for this purpose consists, essentially, in providing theconveyance with. horizontal laterally pressed trolley wheels yieldinglyheld in engagement with a pair of overhead positive and negativeconductors and resiliently supported by the conveyance at the normalheight of such conductors, the resilient support being constructed topermit the conveyance to freely wander to considerable distances ateither side of the conductors.

Referring to the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1is a perspective view of a conveyance constructed to be guided along anypart of a roadway and provided with my trackless trolley. Fig. 2 is aplan View showing the trolley-wheels in engagement with a pair oftrolley-wires; and Fig. 3 is an elevation of the same, the said wiresbeing shown in cross-section. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of my trolley,showing a means whereby the trolley-wheels can be drawn to- Serial No.67,447. (No model.)

gether. Fig. 5 is an under view of the upper part of the trolley,showing the same thing.

As illustrated in Fig. 1, the conveyance represented is of the open-carform (designated by the reference-numeral 30) and running uponrubber-tired automobile-wheels 31 32, of which 31 are the driving-wheelsand 32 the steering-wheels controlled by the steering-lever 33. Swiveledupon the roof of this conveyance is a trolley-pole 3, having its upperend normally maintained at substantially the height of the trolley-wires2 by a tensionspring 6. Said spring and the swiveled bearings 4 may beof the usual type employed in electric traction, with the exception thatthe spring should loo-much weaker in order to give the trolley no moreof an upward pres sure than is required to counterbalance the pole andtrolley, and thereby resiliently support the same at about the level ofthe trolleywires. Swiveled upon the upperend of the pole 3 is anarrangement usually termed a lazytongs, carrying at its oppositeextremities the horizontal trolley-wheels 1, pressed laterally intoengagement with the trolley-wires 2 by means of the springs 16. Saidlazytongs 15 should be composed of some nonconducting material or insome other manner made incapable of transmitting current from thepositive to the negative conductor 2.

The bearings 10 of each trolley-wheel are provided with a rigid arm orextension 11, descending flush with the wheel-flange, as shown in Fig.3, while from the extremities thereof depend the cords or ropes 12 intoreach of the occupants of the conveyance.

From each bearing 10 to a suitable standard 21 at the side of theswiveled bearings 4 extends a wire or other link for the purpose ofkeeping the lazy-tongs in constant parallelism with the transverse lineof the conveyance. I also prefer to use said wires 20 as conduc tors fortaking the current from and to the contact-wheels 1, it being understoodthat the current is taken from the positive wire 2 through one of thetrolleywheels 1, from thence through a wire 20 and suitable leads to themotors, and from the latter back up to the other wire 20, through theother wheel 1, and so to the negative wire 2.

As is evident, especially from Fig. 2, the

conveyance may move along a line parallel with the trolley-wires at sucha distance there from as to turn the trolley-pole 3 so that it stands atan angle of nearly seventy-five to eighty degrees with the trolley-wiresas viewed from above and the trolley-wheels still keep in perfectcontact with said wires. It is also evident that when the conveyanceturns at an oblique angle relative to the wires 2, as when it veers frommoving along one side of the wires to the opposite in order to avoidsome obstruction or vehicle, the lazy-tongs will also take a similarangle with reference to the wires; but the wheels 1 being horizontalstill keep in perfect contact with the wires. This horizontalarrangement of the trolley-wheels is of course of itself insufficientfor this purpose, but coupled with the resilient extensibility of thelazy-tongs to make up for the greater distance obliquely from wire towire than directly across the trolley-wheels are retained in touch withthe wires without the motorman having to pay much attention to thecourse of the convoyance relative to the trolley-wires. The trolley-polebeing made fourteen feet in length, it is possible for the conveyance totravel with its center fully ten feet from the center line of the wiresin either direction. Doubling this and adding it to the width of the carand we get twenty-six feet as the width of a road along any part ofwhich the conveyance can travel. Another object in having thetrolleywheels capable of considerable lateral divergence, as by thelazy-tongs, is that they may still keep in contact with the wires evenwhen the latter are pressed apart to a considerable distance midwaybetween the wire-supports, the normal width being preferably eighteeninches.

To apply the trolley to the wires, the trolley-wheels are drawn togetherby a suitable means and at the same time the trolley-pole given anupward pressure to carry the said wheels up between the wires 2. A meansfor accomplishing this comprises the rope 30, passing about the pulleys31 32 and terminating in branches 34:, whose ends are attached to theextremities of the lazy-tongs,

as at 35, said branches passing about pulleys 33. In this mannerwhenever the rope 30 is forcibly drawn upon the extremities of thelazy-tongs are brought toward each other, while at the same time theefiect of the pull between the pulleys 31 32 is to elevate the upper endof the trolley-pole. The trolleywheels beingthen released fly apartunder the effect of the springs 16. This brings the cords or ropes 12against said wires. The occupants of the conveyance then pull downwardupon said ropes, thereby drawing the trolley-wheels toward the saidwires until the latter are reached by the extension-arms 11, from whichthey pass to the grooves of said wheels. In this manner thetrolleywheels are brought into engagement with the wires very easily andquickly.

Among other advantages obtained from my arrangement of laterally-pressedhorizontal trolley-wheels are the following: first, their ability ofremaining in perfect contact with the trolley-wires notwithstanding thedivergence of the conveyance to either side of the trolley wires;second, the wheels being grooved and strongly pressed apart against thewires constitute, in efiect, a dovetail en gagement of parts, whichpowerfully resists any tendency to separation; third, they permit ofready automatic switching from one line to another.

What I claim as my invention, and for which I desire Letters Patent, isas follows, to wit:

1. The combination with two parallel positive and negative conductorsfixed above a roadway, of a conveyance freely running on any part ofsuch roadway, horizontal trolleywheels elastically pressed in oppositedirections against lateral faces of said conductors, and connectionsbetween said wheels and conveyance, substantially as described.

2. The combination with two parallel positive and negative conductorsfixed above a roadway, of an electrically-propelled conveyance freelyrunning on any part of such roadway, horizontal trolley wheelselastically pressed in opposite directions against lateral faces of saidconductors, and means yieldingly supporting said wheels from saidconveyance, whereby the trolley-wheels remain in safe engagement withthe conductors whether the course of the conveyance be directly beneaththe same or at considerable distances to either side thereof,substantially as described.

3. The combination with two parallel positive and negative conductorsfixed above a roadway, of an electrically-propelled conveyance freelyrunning upon any part of such roadway, horizontal trolley-wheelselastically pressed apart against said conductors, and an inflexibleconnection between saidconveyance and wheels yieldingly supporting thelatter, whereby the trolley-wheels remain in safe engagement with theconductors whether the course of the conveyance be directly beneath thesame or at considerable distances to either side thereof, substantiallyas described.

4. The combination with two parallel positive and negativeconductorsfixed above a roadway, of an electrically-propelled conveyance freelyrunning on such roadway, two horizontal trolley-wheels elasticallypressed apart against lateral faces of said conductors, connectionsbetween said conveyance and wheels; and means for temporarily forcingsaid wheels toward each other for the purpose of applying them to, orremoving them from, said wires, substantially as described.

5. The combination with an electric conductor fixed above a roadway, ofa conveyance thereon, a horizontal trolley wheel pressed laterallyagainst said conductor and ICC having its bearings provided with a rigidextension depending flush with its flanges, an inflexible connectionsupporting said wheel from said conveyance, and a cord hanging from thelower end of said extension into reach of the occupants of theconveyance, substantially as described.

6. The combination with two parallel positive and negative conductors,of an electrically-propelled conveyance beneath said conductors, twohorizontal trolley-Wheels laterally pressed against said conductors andconnected with said conveyance, ropes arranged to temporarily force saidwheels toward each other, and extensions projecting downward from thebearings of said wheels flush with the flanges of the latter,substantially as described.

7. In an overhead trolley, a pair of horizontal trolley-wheels incombination with an elastically-extensible support therefor, atrolley-pole terminally connected with the center of said extensiblesupport,a conveyance yield ingly supporting said pole, and meansmaintaining parallelism between said extensible support and thetransverse line of said conveyance, substantially as described.

8. In an overhead trolley, a pair of horizontal trolley-wheels incombination with an elastically-extensible support therefor, atrolley-pole terminally connected with the center of said extensiblesupport,a conveyance yieldingly supporting said pole, and wires joiningthe extremities of said extensible support with said conveyance andconstructed to maintain parallelism between said extensible support andthe transverse line of said conveyance, substantially as described.

9. The combination with two parallel positive and negative conductorsfixed above a roadway, of an electrically-propelled conveyance runningthereon, horizontal trolleywheels elastically pressed in oppositedirections, and means yieldingly supporting said wheels from saidconveyance at the approximate height of said conductors, substantiallyas described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing in-.

Witnesses:

GUY H. HOLLIDAY,

HELEN A. SCOTT.

